Comment on Dennis P. Culhane et al.’s “public shelter admission rates in Philadelphia and New York City: The implications of turnover for sheltered population counts”

The article here extended reflects on the excessively narrow debate over the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs)' cost-benefit transfer balance which had been raging for a quarter-century before the 2007–2009 financial crisis. That crisis has cast a new light on the actual costs of GSE operations and exposed the unsustainability of some of their benefits for homeownership. After injecting afew new findings into the traditional debate, this comment adds some of what has transpired in recent years and what may be inferred from it so far. Doing so brings additional analysis to bear on the article's conclusion that “the GSEs might not be justified” and “Maybe it is time for them to exit” although most politicians in the past have been disinclined to show them the door.     

Funding Global Public Goods: The Dark Side of Multilateralism

The funding of global public goods, such as climate mitigation, presents a complex strategic problem. Potential recipients demand side payments for implementing projects that furnish global public goods, and donors can cooperate to provide the funding. We offer a game‐theoretic analysis of this problem. In our model, a recipient demands project funding. Donors can form a multilateral program to jointly fund the project. If no program is formed, bilateral funding remains a possibility. We find that donors rely on multilateralism if their preferences are relatively symmetric and domestic political constraints on funding are lax. In this case, the recipient secures large rents from project implementation. Thus, even donors with strong interests in global public good provision have incentives to oppose institutional arrangements that promote multilateral funding. These incentives have played an important role in multilateral negotiations on climate finance, especially in Cancun (2010) and Durban (2011).     

Public Policy： The Reality in the Practice of Management Agreements

This paper presents the new version of public policy for government transparency, outlining state＇s required functions, in the context of economic globalization, to enable fulfillment of social demands and Brazil＇s competitive insertion in international markets. In this sense, public policies were adjusted to the role of social and economic development promoter and regulator： Strengthening government capacity for formulating and evaluating them; increasing governance, i.e., government＇s ability to implement public policies, from the viewpoint of efficiency, efficacy, and effectiveness through the introduction of new organizational models and new partnerships with civil society; establishing management contracts, agreements, and partnership terms; and finally modernizing public management. E-government （e-gov） includes three of the seven lines of action of the information society： universal service, government available for all and advanced infrastructure. The Integration and Intelligence Government Information System （i3-Gov） was developed in open platform. Thus, new trends in shared and interagency management for public, productive, and growing third （voluntary） sectors are contemplated. The paper presents the results obtained with the Federal Government Voluntary Transfers Integrated System （SICONV）, which adequately fulfills the expectations of service and transparency, but needs improvement in regard to government participation without state interference.     

Crafting a Region While Intervening? Regional Discourses on Burundi

Peacemaking interventions do not only intend to facilitate desirable order in crisis contexts but, thereby, the participating interveners also struggle to attach meaning to their own position in the world. The African interveners, loosely organized around the ‘Regional Peace Initiative on Burundi’, engender an image of the self that affects the possibilities for political cooperation on the regional scale. Based on a discourse analysis of an extensive corpus of diverse voices from East and South Africa, it is shown that intervention politics increased regional awareness—but not in a linear manner. The idea of a progressive and autonomous East Africa was strongest in the first years of regional facilitation between 1996 and 1999, when the revival of the East African Community (EAC) was also simultaneously being negotiated. This regional impetus decreased with South Africa's more active participation in the intervention, which envisioned increasing its own country profile instead.     

我国城镇化进程与进城农村青年的人文关怀

城镇化指农村人口转化为城镇人口的过程,是工业化、现代化进程必然经历的历史阶段。改革开放之后,我国大量农村人口向城市的转移为现代化、城镇化注入生机和活力,丰富了城镇建设的人力资源,这支力量的主体是青年。在这一过程中进城农村青年经历了很多艰辛,主要表现为权利平等、权益维护、人格尊严、资源共享、社会保障等方面的缺失,即社会人文关怀的缺失。加强对进城农村青年的人文关怀、推进市民化进程,需要制定政策、形成制度。     

北京市新生代农民工城市融人意愿研究

根据国家人口与计划生育委员会2011年和2012年"流动人口动态监测项目"北京地区调查数据和北京市人口与计划生育委员会2012年"北京市流动人口的生存状况与未来预期"项目数据,目前北京的新生代农民工已占农民工整体的一半以上,受教育程度有所提高,面临较大的婚育压力。在城市融入意愿方面,大多数新生代农民工积极评价北京的变化,具有强烈的融入意愿;制约新生代农民工城市融入的主要障碍,有户籍制度等制度性因素,市场能力等经济性因素,以及社会参与不足、人际交往狭窄、居住空间隔离等社会和心理因素。为解决以上问题,需要正确认识与处理控制北京市人口规模与促进新生代农民工的城市融入的关系;创新社区管理体制,调动新生代农民工参与社区服务、社区活动的积极性与主动性,推动新生代农民工实现社区融入;加强对新生代农民工的职业培训,逐步实行城乡统一的劳动力市场就业制度;营造一个有利于新生代农民工融入城市的和谐宽容的社会心理环境。     

二元社会结构下农村青年回乡创业社会适应性问题初探

在当前的二元社会结构下,农村青年回乡创业面临着价值观念冲突、就业理念矛盾、管理方式欠缺、教育学〉-j断层等四个方面的适应性问题。造成这种状况的原因,主要是现行的二元社会政策,以及社会因素、家庭因素和青年自身在知识结构、观念、经济基础等方面的欠缺。要提升农村青年回乡创业的适应性,需要改革修订显失公平的政策制度,针对性地解决相应的社会问题和家庭障碍,并对青年加强教育,提高可持续发展素质。     

贵州农户消费行为研究——基于贵州10村800户的调查

消费者行为的变化是经济研究中一个重要的组成部分,文章重点围绕贵州农村固定观察点10村800农户及家庭成员的消费行为进行探讨,具体从农户名义消费水平及变动趋势,农户实际食品消费水平及变动趋势,农户实际住房消费水平及变动趋势,农户实际耐用品消费水平等方面来分析。从分析结果看,贵州10村农户的生活水平有了比较大的变化,已由温饱型上升到目前的奔小康型。     

贵州农民可持续增收的总体思路与路径

农民实现可持续增收是解决“三农”问题的关键,选择实现农民可持续增收的有效途径更为紧迫。文章分析探讨了促进贵州农民可持续增收的总体思路与实现路径。     

贵州农村金融服务供给的特殊性及创新思路选择

文章针对贵州省农村金融服务供给的特殊性,指出了贵州农村金融服务供给存在的主要问题,提出了加强贵州农村金融服务创新的具体对策,如创新农村金融机构体系,创新农村信贷产品和服务方式,创新农村保险市场,创新农村信用担保体系等。